Successful Quarter Has Square Enix Optimistic

Square Enix is celebrating a good three-month financial period ending on June 30 of this year – thanks to sales of titles like Final Fantasy XIV – with a performance that was better than last year at the same time. This in turn has boosted the company's overall outlook into the fall.

During the last quarter, net sales were up 56.8 percent (37.75 billion yen/$368.7 million) from the same time period the previous year, and the company went from a 493 million yen loss to a 3.4 billion yen net profit.

Square Enix says the change during the period was due to repeat sales of already released titles, the release of Murdered: Soul Suspect (above), good sales of PC browser titles, mobile games, and the "favorable progress" of Final Fantasy XIV and Dragon Quest X. Cost-cutting measures have also been cited.

The company's Digital Entertainment games division posted net sales of 23.5 billion yen – a huge increase over the 4.5 billion yen it recorded over the same time last year.

Accordingly, this bump has caused the company to revise its previous outlook for the six-month period ending on September 30. Previously, Square Enix expected to post anywhere from a net loss of 1.3 billion yen to a 1.3 profit. Now it anticipates announcing up to a 4.5 billion yen in net income.

Our TakeThe company's accomplishment is perhaps even greater considering that it's revising its six-month outlook even though currently it doesn't have any big-time games releasing through September 30.